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Visitors turned away from Las Vegas shooting venue

Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

On the anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in the nation's modern history, the determined and the curious were turned away from the concert venue that became a killing field a year ago.

Officials with MGM Resorts International handed out maps and fliers on Monday to pedestrians who reached a locked and screened gate at the unused Las Vegas Strip festival grounds.

The company owns both the concert venue and the Mandalay Bay hotel, from which a gunman fired assault-style rifles from the 32nd floor, killing 58 people and injuring more than 850 on Oct. 1, 2017.

The fliers suggested a short walk to a neighboring Catholic church for "quiet reflection" inside or to sign a commemorative banner -- or a trip to a planned evening dedication at a downtown memorial garden.

No parking was allowed along Las Vegas Boulevard and police closed a street between the church and the concert grounds, which has not been used since the shooting.

The chief executive of MGM Resorts International called the 1 October "an unforgettable act of terror."

Company chairman and CEO Jim Murren said in a statement Monday that the shooting was a "senseless act of evil."

Police and the FBI have not called the shooting a terrorist act or said the Mandalay Bay gunman was linked to a conspiracy. They say he acted alone.

How the event is characterized is important for MGM Resorts because it wants to invoke a federal anti-terrorism law enacted after Sept. 11, 2001, in defense of negligence lawsuits
alleging that the casino giant could have prevented the shooting.

Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.